


Alles is Gut

by Lefaym



Category: X-Men (Movies), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014) - Fandom, X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst with a Happy/Hopeful Ending, Canon Jewish Character, Gen, M/M, Past Erik/Magda, content note: anxiety, content note: holocaust references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-29
Updated: 2014-11-29
Packaged: 2018-02-27 11:44:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2691695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lefaym/pseuds/Lefaym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik is late, and Edie fears the worst. But when he finally arrives home with two new friends, Edie knows that her son may have found a new chance at happiness, whatever dangers might await them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alles is Gut

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Unforgotten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforgotten/gifts).



> Thank you, Unforgotten, for your wonderful canon-divergent prompt -- it took over my brain the moment I saw it!
> 
> And thank you too, to my wonderful betas: [redacted], who (a) gave my ignorant self invaluable advice about writing Jewish characters, and [redacted] for her overall support and feedback! 
> 
> (Names to be revealed after the reveal!)

Edie watched the second hand on the clock tick past the five. Past the six. Every second seemed to last a day. When the hand reached the seven, Edie closed her eyes and forced herself to turn away. It was not like Erik to be so late. Almost a whole hour now, an hour in which anything could have happened.

She made herself breathe. The worst things she imagined would not happen, not now. She was in her little apartment in Queens, where she had lived for four years with Erik. Everything would be all right. Erik could take care of himself, and he would come home.

Edie unclenched her fists, and made herself remember Erik’s eyes when they had first seen the Statue of Liberty from the boat, so long ago now, thirteen years since 1949. She remembered him reaching out with his hands, and she had been so scared then, so scared that he would do something to draw attention to them, but he had not. He had just stared ahead, his face raised up to the sky, and said so quietly that only she could hear, “I can feel it, I can feel all of it.”

She had been so happy then, to see how much joy he could take in his gift, in his blessing from G-d. And if they had not always been happy since, if there had been bad times as well as good ones, well, they had survived, and they would survive a while longer yet.

Edie heard the lock in the door click, the sound it made when Erik didn’t use a key, and at last she felt relief. The door opened, and Erik was there, and oh, she tried not to show him how she worried so, but he knew anyway. He set the bags of groceries in his arms aside and pulled her in close.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I got held up.” He kissed the top of her head before he pulled away from her.

Only then did Edie see that he had two other people with him. A young man and a woman, younger still. “Erik?” she asked.

The young man spoke first, before Erik had the chance to answer. “Mrs Lehnsherr,” he said, stepping forward and offering his hand, “My name is Charles Xavier, and I am so very sorry, I’m rather afraid it’s our fault that Erik is late.”

Edie took the proffered hand, and the man smiled at her.

Behind him, the girl snorted. “ _Our_ fault, Charles?”

“All right, I must admit, it was my fault. This charming young lady you see behind me is my sister, Raven, and I assure you, she is blameless in this whole affair.”

Edie looked from the man, this Charles, to his sister. “You are friends of Erik?”

“I certainly hope we will be soon,” Charles said.

Edie turned to Erik, and the look she saw on his face, it was a look she had not seen in far too long. She could forgive them for the time she had spent worrying.

“It is lucky that I have a kugel warm in the oven,” Edie said. “You must both stay for dinner. You can tell me why you made my Erik so late.”

* * *

It was very funny, the story they told as they ate. The girl, Raven, told most of it, rolling her eyes at her brother, who had been so distracted by his daydreams that he had walked right into her poor Erik, and sent the groceries he was carrying all across the sidewalk. But luckily they had been able to pick everything up, and aside from some bruised apples, there was no damage done.

“Such a strange way to meet new friends,” Edie said, as she smiled and shook her head. “Like an accident in a film.”

Charles continued to smile for a moment longer, but then his face grew serious. “I must admit,” he said, “we didn’t quite meet by accident. Though I had no intention of relieving Erik of his groceries.”

“Oh? What do you mean?”

“Raven and I… we were looking for Erik. We think he can help us find someone.”

Charles looked at her so earnestly, so openly, but Edie’s stomach felt hollow all at once, as though she had not eaten at all. “Find someone?” she asked.

Edie gripped the table with her hands, but when she did that it upset the tablecloth, just a little, and her fork fell to the floor. She leaned down to pick it up, but Erik put her hand on his shoulder and stopped her. Very slowly he turned his other hand, and the fork rose from the floor and hovered above the table for a moment, before he let it fall.

“Erik?” she whispered. Edie looked to Charles and Raven, but they did not seem shocked. They were smiling, and Charles was leaning forward a little, as though waiting to see more.

“Mama,” said Erik softly. He covered her small hand with his large one. “Charles and Raven, they can… do things. They’re like me.”

At first, Edie’s lungs would not let her breathe. Like her Erik… special, like him.

“I thought,” Edie said when she had air again, “that there must be others in the world.”

Then another story started, and Charles told it this time, about two lonely children who had found each other, because both of them could do things, wonderful things. They showed her what they could do; Charles put his hand to his head and told her that she had a delicious cheesecake in the refrigerator, and Raven changed her shape to look like Marilyn Monroe. And when they did that, she could see a light in her son, burning bright and strong.

But the story was not over yet. Charles told her of his thesis in Oxford and a woman who had seen people with powers she did not understand, and a man who was plotting to make another war, even more terrible than the last one. And Edie’s chest grew tight when he told her that, when he said that this woman was CIA, and when he described what this man wanted to do.

But she couldn’t speak, she couldn’t tell him to stop, so Charles continued, and he told her about a boat, and a submarine, and a machine that could magnify his power so he could find others… and so he had found Erik.

“So dangerous,” said Edie, when he was done, when she found her voice again. “This man…” It was as though a coil was wrapped tightly around her heart.

“We intend to stop him,” said Charles.

“But you work by the CIA,” Edie whispered. The coil wrapped itself more tightly.

Charles looked at her, his face resting in the palm of his hand. “It suits our purposes right now to work with them. There are some good men and women there, and they want to help.”

“But there will be bad ones, also,” Edie replied. “As bad as… the man you hunt.”

Charles kept on looking at her, holding her gaze with his eyes. He could make her think things, he could make her think whatever he liked, but she felt sure he wasn’t doing that now; she would not feel so frightened if he was.

“I won’t allow anyone to hurt us,” Charles said.

Edie forced herself to smile, though it was difficult. “You seem a good man. I hope you will be as strong as you think.”

“Most people are stronger than they know,” said Charles, and his eyes flickered to Erik then, just for a moment. “And I hope that soon, it won’t be me and Raven alone, protecting people like us.”

“You’re alone now?” Edie asked. “The CIA, they don’t come here, to search with you?”

Charles shook his head. “No. The CIA wanted to send one of their agents with us, but I, ah, convinced them,” Charles tapped the side of his head, “that it should just be Raven and me. If we’re going to find others like us, then I think—”

“They should be found by their own kind,” Erik said. He had been so silent while Charles had talked, but now there was something in his voice…

Charles smiled and looked over at Erik, to catch his eye. “Exactly.”

Erik smiled back at Charles then, a very little bit, and Edie felt as though her heart might burst, but she knew that Erik mustn’t miss this chance.

Edie squeezed Erik’s hand, so that he would know it was all right. “When will you leave?” she asked him.

Erik grew very still, as though he had been frozen by her words. Perhaps he hadn’t planned to go, but Edie knew her son.

“You will go with them, yes?” she prompted.

“Tomorrow,” Charles said quietly, when Erik still did not answer. “We leave tomorrow morning.”

“We’re going to Chicago,” Raven added. “Charles found this guy…”

“It’s amazing, Erik,” Charles said, “all the different things we can do. There are no two mutants exactly alike, at least not that I’ve seen so far.”

This Charles, he knew what to say to make Erik talk.

“With enough of us together,” said Erik, his voice so very quiet, “we can stop him for good. He won’t hurt anyone again.”

“We can bring him to justice,” Charles said. “We can ensure that he’s tried for his crimes.”

The tightness in her chest moved to her throat, and Edie thought she might never breathe again, because the way Erik spoke, the way he looked… she had heard that, she had seen that in him before. Edie swallowed the fear inside her, and forced herself to speak. “Erik, come with me to the kitchen. We prepare dessert.”

It took a moment before Erik turned to her, before he pulled his eyes away from Charles, but of course he agreed; he helped her clear the table, and followed her from their small dining room into the kitchen.

Edie closed the sliding door, and turned to Erik as he reached up to take the dairy plates from the cupboard.

“This man that Charles and Raven are seeking,” Edie said, “it’s him, is it not? It is… him?” Even now, so many years later, she could not bring herself to say his name.

Erik froze with the plates in his hands. Finally, he turned to her and nodded. “How did you know?”

Edie sighed. “I cannot read minds like your new friend, but I’m not so stupid, my son. I see it in your eyes. You have wanted to go after him for many years.” 

“But I thought you didn’t want…”

“Perhaps it is time,” Edie said.

She had begged him not to go, before, in that terrible time after Magda had left, when he had been so filled with rage and grief that he had twisted every piece of metal she owned in his sleep. He had cared so little for his own life then that he would have thrown it away. But Edie had begged him, she had held onto him and begged him not to go, and he had cried in her arms like a child, and he had stayed.

“What’s changed?” Erik asked.

So many things had changed. “This time…this Charles will take care of you. And Raven, also. With them you will be safe, maybe.”

Edie tried to blink, but she couldn’t stop the tears coming to her eyes, because she was scared, because she wished that Erik would just forget the existence of this terrible man, because if that man found Erik again, he might hurt him more, and this time she wouldn’t be there to protect her son. It was so tempting to tell him to stay again, that he mustn’t go at all… but now, it would only be selfishness to do that.

The forks in her hand moved; they floated up and settled on the bench. And then Erik was gathering her into his arms, holding her so tight that it hurt. She could feel him take long shuddering breaths, and when he let her go he turned away from her and wiped at his eyes.

“I’ll come back,” he said when he turned back to her. “I promise.”

Edie reached up and placed her hand on Erik’s cheek. “I know you will.” Saying it like that, she felt the truth of it. “Now, you help me get the cake ready, yes?”

They went together back into the dining room with the cake in their hands, and Charles looked up at them. When Erik met his eyes, Edie knew she had done the right thing, telling him to go. The way they both looked at each other now… some people would say it was wrong, she knew that, but she didn’t care. Her Erik, he had suffered so much, she would never stop him from finding his happiness where he could.

Raven was looking at them both too, her expression so hard to read. Perhaps she worried for her brother, as Edie worried for Erik. Edie sat next to her on the couch, and passed her one of the plates.

“Alles is gut,” Edie said when Raven looked at her. “Alles is gut.” She had said that to Erik once, and it had been enough. He had reached inside himself, and found his strength, and though that man had fired the bullet, it had not hit her. They had survived, both of them, they had survived it all.

And they would survive now. They would find him, and stop him from hurting others, and Erik would come back to her. He would find good things in life again, and he would smile has he had not done in years.

“Alles is gut,” Edie said, and she knew that it would be.


End file.
